Operation Devil-Fish
Operation Devil-Fish was a joint expedition launched by the Platonic Republic and Roman Empire during the Pacific War in Imperium Offtopicum XIV. Conceived shortly after Greece was expelled from UNVIFOR, the original campaign envisioned a direct attack on the Japanese Home Islands, but after consultation with the United Arab Republic it was revised into a less ambitious amphibious assault on Japanese-held Taiwan. Due to poor logistics and an atrocious lack of military intelligence, the landing was a complete failure, resulting in the death of Roman emperor Andreas and the nigh-total destruction of the expeditionary force, crippling the participants' armies and removing Greece and Rome as meaningful international powers. The defeat led to widespread civil unrest, including the rise of the People's Militia in Greek-held Libya, and Rome releasing border regions as independent states. Background Although the Platonic Republic was a founding sponsor of UNVIFOR, its decision to endorse the Council of Hanoi as the sovereign government of Vietnam was seen as politicizing the mission, and when in the wake of the Rosemary incident it adopted jingoistic rhetoric against Japan, the mission commander Ahmad al-Karimi expelled Greek forces over concerns Athens was planning a pre-emptive attack that would jeopardize the original mandate. After withdrawing from UNVIFOR, Greece organized an independent mission to relieve Hanoi in the summer of 2105, but the convoy was intercepted in the Gulf of Tonkin and several thousand personnel were taken prisoner. While state media tried to spin the debacle as secretly beneficial to UNVIFOR and claimed Greece was still in the fight, Athens began private peace talks that secured the POWs' release in exchange for preferential economic relations with Japan. Development Athens never intended to uphold the treaty, instead using Japan's shift in focus as a means of rearming its forces for a future sneak attack. When in the winter of 2105 Rome withdrew from UNVIFOR over impatience in the Vietnam War, it joined Greece in planning Operation Devil-Fish, an ambitious campaign intended to sidestep the main fronts and invade the Japanese Home Islands. An early draft of the campaign was presented to the United Arab Republic for appraisal; Jerusalem rebuked Rome for abandoning UNVIFOR in favour of a "suicide run", lambasting what it regarded as six critical flaws: # The expedition intended to travel directly from the Aegean Sea to the Japanese coast without resupply; # The most direct route would take the fleet through the South China Sea, precipitating direct confrontation with the Imperial Japanese Navy before the primary objective was reached; # The plan completely ignored Sichuan and the Gangnam Republic as logical staging grounds for short-range amphibious assaults, to say nothing of potential combat support; # The plan lacked detail on strategic targets, order of battle, and the composition of the battlefield itself; # Greece and Rome presumed they could conduct large-scale espionage within the season despite having no operational spy rings in Japan; # The plan lacked an exit strategy, and basing rights had not been negotiated with any other participant in the Pacific War. Jerusalem warned that without an evacuation corridor, failure to establish a beachhead would risk the loss of the entire expedition. While details of the operation were submitted to UNVIFOR military command and Greece repeatedly tried to lobby for additional support, it was not endorsed by any other country, and assertions by Greece and Rome that they would unilaterally annex captured territory provoked special hostility. While Greece ultimately conceded to the UAR's advice to reduce the scope of the operation to seizing Taiwan, it did not adopt any of the other recommendations. Execution The Greek fleet set sail in the winter of 2105 under command of General Xylon Toto. During passage through the Suez Canal, Toto was attacked by extremists later identified with the Almasi cell of the People's Militia; he was removed from the mission and hospitalized in Egypt. The fleet then linked up with Roman forces at Ho Chi Minh City that included Emperor Andreas himself, and the combined expedition made for Taiwan. During passage through the South China Sea, the fleet was intercepted by Japanese ships that inflicted heavy damage before it was forced to withdraw. The landing at Taiwan quickly descended into chaos. Laskaris, in an ill-conceived show of bravado, personally led the first charge and was cut down almost immediately, shattering the expedition's morale. The attack aborted having inflicted minimal damage to the Japanese garrison; during retreat the fleet was intercepted again by a reinforced Japanese patrol, and almost none of the original expedition made it safely back to Ho Chi Minh City. Fallout Greece and Rome had committed the overwhelming majority of their armed forces to the attack, and the campaign's failure effectively left them without standing armies. Greece and Rome quickly blamed each other for the attack; Toto, intended to serve as strategic advisor during the operation, blamed the "boy" Laskaris for botching the attack, even though almost all of the planning had been handled by Greece. However, Laskaris had deliberately withheld advance airstrikes and offshore bombardment that could have softened the Japanese defensive line over an obsessive aversion to collateral damage. Laskaris' death left the Roman government paralyzed, and in 2106 it conceded to a punitive peace with Japan that required Rome embargo remaining combatants. Rome claimed the virtual destruction of its army left it no recourse, but Jerusalem denounced Constantinople for forsaking its allies in favour of a politically suicidal and unenforceable treaty. Fed up with the government's blunders, periphery territories submitted a petition to incoming emperor Theodoros Komnenos for self-rule; Bulgaria and Kurdistan were released as independent states, while Cyprus and Crimea defected to Syria and the Soviet Union, respectively. In Greece, the Philosopher Council turned on itself, scapegoating Toto for the operation's failure and disavowing that its own foreign policy had set it on the warpath. With the Protective Caste enfeebled and Athens' control crumbling, the People's Militia began direct action, provoking a brief civil war and invasion by the Soviet Union in latter 2106. Category:Battles in IOT14 Category:Campaigns in IOT14 Category:Pacific War (IOT14)